Diana Huerta- Crime

 (https://abc7.com/lapd-gun-violence-2021-crime-in-la-violent-south/9757544/) 

(https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/california/districts/los-angeles-unified-school-district/thomas-jefferson-senior-high-2552)

(https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-jul-12-mn-12045-story.html)

Crime in South Central

Diana Huerta

     South Central is home to many minority families and it is also home to crime. Gangs and violence have been an issue for my community for decades now. It is unsafe to walk the street alone or at night because of the danger. It has become very unsafe and needs to be controlled.

    Crime in this side of town is nothing new. The Los Angeles Times has an article "Sweeping Order to Limit Activity of 18th Street Gang" by David Rosenzweig and Matea Gold. This article was written in 1997 and says "Judge Alan G. Buckner approved a preliminary injunction that carries unprecedented provisions in Los Angeles’ long and frustrating war on gangs. The most significant and controversial: a ban on three or more gang members congregating, standing, sitting, walking, driving or appearing in public together anywhere in a 17-block area of Jefferson Park.Recalling the violence that accompanied the civil rights struggle in the South during the 1960s, Buckner said he never dreamed he would witness something similar 30 years later in Los Angeles “where moms and dads have to take their kids in the house to get them out of the line of fire.” These were measures taken years ago in order to try and stop gang violence. It is now 2021 and we still face these issues. The article "South LA seeing big spike in shootings in first two weeks of 2021, LAPD says" on the ABC 7 website mentions that "The South L.A. area saw 59 shooting victims in the first two weeks of 2021, compared to seven in that time last year, the chief said. He tweeted: "Officers have made 105 arrests of individuals with firearms. 130 firearms taken from street. Gang intervention trying, but we need our community and elected officials." This information is shocking and not in a positive way. Those who have the Citizens app and live in South Central know that the app is buzzing all the time because of so much crime. My nearest CVS is always being robbed, the street next to mines is home to a gang and cars/belonging are always being tagged.

      Violence and crime is so bad in my community there is even a movie about it. The movie is called "End of Watch," and was released in 2012. This movie is about two officers in the LAPD fighting gang violence in South Central. These officers find crazy things in the streets of South Central and show the harsh reality of gang violence. I remember watching this movie with my dad and realizing the streets being filmed where the ones right next to me, literally a block down. Sadly a lot of what they show is very close to the truth. 

     This violence and crime is affecting the community negatively. The nearest high school to me is Thomas Jefferson High School. This high school has an extremely low graduation rate and its testing scores are very low. If you walk down the street from this school you will find a sign that says Police enforcement area for narcotic gangs. It is tuff to see that our communities young adults are literally face to face with gang crime. Its environment is affecting their studies and personal lives. 

Not only do we see signs like these on the daily, we see several spots on the streets filled with flowers and candles. What does that mean? It means that someone was just killed in that spot. Most of the time they will include pictures and those pictures are usually young adults... Teens and young adults are being affected by such crime. They are involving themselves in it and losing their lives at a young age because of it. 

    This crazy violence has affected my family personally it has not been physical but it did affect us. My father has a small fruit business that has taken him years to build. He used to own this van in which he would deliver fruit to his customers. This van is essentially our money maker being that it was what helped his business succeed. One day the van was gone. This affected the business because we had no resources to do our job. This affected my dad personally because he became to feel unsafe in his own home, in his own community. After filling reports and investigating. We found the van tagged, with no parts. It is sad to see that things like these can happen right in front of you. This added on to our fear of violence. My father works at midnight and we always fear for his safety. South Central is not a safe space to be driving out at night in.

How can we work towards diminishing crime rates in South Central ?

    Many years ago there was an event at the recreational park down the street from my home. This event is called "Breaking the Cycle of Violence" and it is hosted by the L.A.U.R.A (Life After Uncivil Ruthless Acts) group. This event is dedicated to those who have lost their lives because of gang violence and crime. I never knew the name of this event or what it was for exactly, but I have a clear memory of what I saw. When I went I was probably 13, at first it was cool because I saw low-riders and Chicano Art which my dad and I have always shared a love for. As we continued walking what we saw was shocking. There was rows of posters with individuals faces on them. These people all died due to gang violence and crime. The families of these people shared stories and it was very moving. My family and I were in our own bubble, but seeing this made us wake up. It made a lot of people wake up because the park was filled with people of all races and for one purpose, to stop violence. This is rare to see because that park is usually split, if you look at someone the wrong way who knows what could happen. 

    It is events like these that actually bring communities together and remind us that violence is not the answer. All of those people passed away because of it and their families and communities are suffering because of these losses. I believe having more physical awareness like this event is amazing for the community and is a step in the right direction to diminish crime in South Central. 

Questions

1. How has your understanding of Civic Engagement changed by participating in this assignment? It has changed in a meaningful way for me. I was always aware of violence but putting it all together made me realize how bad it actually is. It also made me realize that the event for violence in my community was significant for a reason. That reason being that it was a Civic engagement project, it was a project with a purpose that brought the community together. 

2.Were you surprised at the number of people you found in your community who were also affected by the same social issue? No I was not surprised, when researching about the issue it was more sad than shocking because most of this has been all over the news.

3. If you were to redo this assignment, would you change anything ? I would have loved to know more about the L.A.U.R.A organization and maybe get some more information from them.

4. Did you receive any feedback from a community member that was surprising to you? Unfortunately I did not due to COVID.  

5. Do you feel as though you were succesful in your presentation? Do you feel as though members of your surrounding community and the outlying community will be affected by your blog post ? I think they would be affected by it. Crime is something that  has affected our community greatly and not only that many of the teens here attend Thomas Jefferson or surrounding schools with the same environment.

6. Did you face any challenges while going into your community and asking people if they were affected by your blog post? I faced a couple challenges when trying to research on the event for crime in my community. It is almost as if it were hidden. I think it is hardly talked about that it was almost forgotten. There are no pictures of the event just flyers. 

7. Do you have any other closing comments you wish to make about this assignment ? I really appreciate this assignment, it made me realize the struggles of my community and how important it actually is to us. 

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Works Cited 

“Sweeping Order to Limit Activity of 18th Street Gang.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 1997, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-jul-12-mn-12045-story.html.

Person. “South La Seeing Big Spike in Shootings in First Two Weeks of 2021, LAPD Says.” ABC7 Los Angeles, KABC-TV, 18 Jan. 2021, https://abc7.com/lapd-gun-violence-2021-crime-in-la-violent-south/9757544/.